Remember Ally, who was our first interview on Broadway Babes? (You can read Ally’s solo interview here!) Ally and her friends started an online book club called the Patti Murin Book Club!For those who don’t know, Patti is a Broadway performer who is currently playing Princess Anna in Frozen: the musical on Broadway! I had the opportunity to interview Ally and Amanda from the book club. To see how a group of fans, (who you can see a few of in the picture above with Patti and her husband Collin) created a book club based on one of their favorite people… keep reading!
What is your name? Where are you from?
Ally: Hi, I’m Ally, or Alexa O’Brien. I use she/her pronouns,I’m 25, and I’m from New Jersey. Amanda: Hi! I’m Amanda (she/her), I’m 24, and I’m from New York.
Tell us a little more about the Patti Murin Book Club!
Ally: Patti Reads Book club, which should more accurately be called team true love is a group chat and a social media account and an actual Club where we read books recommended by Patti. We’ve been pretty bad at the reading aspect of the club this year unfortunately but we will definitely be getting back on track. The name team true love came from when we did a walk for the National Alliance on Mental Illness this May. We came up with the name based on the Beautiful song in the musical.
Amanda: Patti Reads Book Club is a virtual book club made up of a bunch of people who were brought together by one fabulous human. We all love to read. Every month, we pick a book that Patti has either suggested in the past or suggested to us. At the end of the month we have a discussion about the book. Aside from being a book club, we are a group of people who are always there to listen to others. If anyone wants to talk or vent or needs a friend, we are always there for each other. It’s magical.
How did you first connect to Frozen?
Ally: I think what attracted me to Frozen was how honest it was. I was a closet Disney fan for a bunch of years- I had definitely lost the joy over the years. I saw the movie with a group of five friends on November 30, 2013- it was such a special day I’ll never forget that date. We actually planned a different movie for our annual outing, but it was sold out. We ended up seeing Frozen- and I really saw myself in the sisters. My friends immediately compared me to Anna as we left the movie theatre. I related to feeling shut out, being a serious optimist, and insanely awkward. As we were leaving the theatre, my friend confessed that she could really relate to Elsa in particular, and I said something I’d literally never told anyone: that I had anxiety and ended up crying. She’d been my friend for about two years at that point, but she became my sister that day. Then in Summer 2017, I discovered Patti. A lot of people saw me as Anna but I never saw myself as Anna, truly,despite my hope. Enter Patti Murin. She made this character real and made me feel like I was seeing myself represented for the first time (ever). I know the Elsa to my Anna felt the same way. In every movement Patti made, I saw a little bit of… me! This is because I followed Patti on twitter shortly after she was announced as Anna and in September of 2017, I read her blog post about her depression. I remember reading that and just gasping that someone else understood me- and not only that- the woman playing Princess Anna! I tweeted to thank her and that kinda started all of this.
Amanda: I have also been a fan of Frozen since the movie was released. I have always been a big Disney fan. I went to go see it in theaters and absolutely loved it. Similar to Ally, I saw so much of myself in Anna. I was so happy to see a Disney princess who isn’t “put together” and is perfectly imperfect. As far as the Broadway show, it all started in April 2018. I bought tickets to see the show in late April for an early mother’s present day for my mom. The day after I bought the tickets, I saw my Twitter timeline blow up with news articles about Patti’s viral Instagram post. That’s really what got me into her and the Broadway show. The first time I saw the show, I was completely mesmerized and hooked. Magical is an understatement to describe that day. It was one of those moments when I knew instantly that it was going to be a special show to me.
How did you get to know each other?
Ally: The group chat actually started in February 2018. The first time I saw Frozen was in March of 2018 and as a gift for Patti and for Caissie I asked people on Twitter to write notes to them that I cut into snowflakes and gave them as jars. When I started getting letters to give to Patty I was absolutely flabbergasted by the amount of people who had stories like mine. because of this I connected to so many beautiful human beings who shared the connection to Frozen with me. And then something absolutely remarkable happened. On April 17, 2018, Patti called out of the show due to a panic attack. I didn’t know that that afternoon when I came home from work and burst into tears. I was struggling extremely hard. That night, I actually saw and hugged Aisha.The next day, while I was home in my bed, still crying from a mix of the leftover depression and happiness with the night before, Patti came out with the truth. Her story went viral. A bunch of us, including Amanda and I, connected in the comments of that post and received encouragement from Patti. I couldn’t even get out of bed and then Patti tweeted me “You should be proud of yourself. Look at you now. A bright, shining light who so many people love”. There were maybe eight of us who really started opening up to each other that day and shared our stories. And our lives were literally changed by Patti and this club.
Amanda: Previous to knowing each other, we actually had a mutual friend. I was in a production of Bonnie & Clyde with her best friend a few years ago. So I would always see her in pictures on Facebook. The day that Patti made her Instagram post about calling out of the show, I was looking at the replies and seeing just how many people out there were struggling with the same things as I was. I saw Ally’s reply and knew we had a mutual friend, so I reached out and we started talking. As far as the book club, we started the idea, people were interested in joining, we started a group chat, and the rest is history as they say!
Interesting! How has the book club and Patti changed your lives?
Ally: I know I’m not alone now. And Patti literally changed my life because due to her honesty, I was able to go on medication for my anxiety and depression, and I’m so much better because of it. She also influenced me in starting my blog.
Amanda: the book club not only got me into reading much more often, but it has given me such an incredible support system of friends who understand me. As for Patti, I could go on for hours about how she has changed my life. I talk about it all the time. The day that she had a panic attack that caused her to call out of the show was the same exact day that I had my anxiety disorder relapse. I didn’t even realize it was the same exact day until the anniversary hit this year. It’s mind blowing to me. I was afraid to go on meds because the unfortunate stigma attached to it. It was because of all of her posts and interviews about mental health and meds, I decided to reach out to get help. I started meds last October and it was and still is a literal lifesaver. Even though at times I’m still embarrassed that I need meds to function normally, I remind myself that Patti does it too and it’s perfectly normal and absolutely okay. I am SO grateful for her.
What made you start the Patti Murin Book Club? What was that process like?
Ally: The idea for the book club started when Patti started recommending a book a day every day in the year of 2018. Amanda and I came up with the idea of a book club chat to discuss a couple of the books she was reading and asked people to join! We had a groupchat dedicated to Frozen so we asked people to join there.
Amanda: It’s funny actually because it started off as a joke. Ally, Ali (our other admin) and I were all individually reading the newest book that Patti tweeted about (The Power by Naomi Alderman). I tweeted about the book and they both were like hey I’m reading that book too! So I jokingly said we should start a book club. After laughing about it we were like wait…that’s actually a great idea! So then it all began! Patti retweeted us and so many people wanted to join!
What’s it like having a virtual book club with people all over the world? Any favorite memories?
Ally: it’s insane!!! We have friends all over the world now!!!! A few of my favorite memories were our book club trips to the show on Halloween last year and last August where we sat a row behind Beyonce and met Colin.The best memory has to be the 5K we did in May for NAMI.
Amanda: it’s so crazy to think that our little tiny idea brought together people from all around the world! We’ve had a bunch of amazing memories so far! We have mini book club trips to the show like Ally mentioned (the Beyoncé one being the best so far). Ally and I got to host a Disney On Broadway Fan meetup at Broadway Con 2018 which was so surreal! My favorite memory though was when our other admin, Ali, came to see me in my local production of Mamma Mia. She’s from Colorado and was in New York for a trip during the same week as my show and got on the train to come see me perform! It was super special!
How do you pick books for the book club? Is there a process that y’all have?
Amanda: We usually look back at suggestions that Patti has recently tweeted about. We also sometimes message her asking for her suggestions for our next book as well. We usually narrow it down to 2-3 books and tweet out a poll for everyone to vote on which we should read next. The book with the most votes becomes our next book!
What do you see for the future of the Patti Murin Book Club?
Alexa: As far as the actual book club aspect, we want to try a group video chat next as we found the chat page we made too confusing. So one of our goals is to actually be a book club! And as for the group of people, we’re stuck with each other for life.
Amanda: The first goal for the future is to get back into the swing of a monthly book. We have been slacking because life happens but we are planning to start the new year by getting back on track! Also, hopefully in the future we can plan one giant book club trip where we have as many people as we can in New York. We always have mini ones but having a bunch of us together at once would be pretty cool.
Does Patti enjoy the fact that she has a book club named after her? What was her response when this first started?
Ally: her support has been WILD! She follows the account, DMs us with book suggestions, and has been so kind to us.
Amanda: To be honest, I was nervous at first about how she was going to react to the book club but she absolutely loved it as soon as she heard about it. She’s so supportive of it and so sweet to us! She retweets our new book tweets a lot and is always so awesome with giving us new book suggestions!
Since y’all are a book club, I have to ask, what are you currently reading? Any recommendations?
Ally: I’m currently reading In the time we lost by Carrie Hope Fletcher who is an actress on The West End as well as an author and YouTuber .It’s very sweet British romantic and it’s kind of Groundhog Day. It’s about a woman who goes to a small town to write a book after she has dealt with a lot of tragedies to start over and there ends up being a freak July snow storm. I’m finally reading the Percy Jackson series as well.
Amanda: Personally, I’m just starting to read Son of a Witch which is the next book in the Wicked series by Gregory Mcguire. It’s about, yep you guessed it, Elphaba’s son. This series is SO intense and SO different than the show but I love it. I love seeing how different the first book was to the show. My favorite book we’ve read in Book Club so far is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Closeby Jonathan Safran Foer.
Favorite piece of advice you’ve gotten from Patti?
Ally: Not necessarily advice, but “even princesses get scared sometimes”.
Amanda: “the voice in your head is not you”. I asked her how she deals with those moments when your brain is beating yourself up when you’re having a bad anxiety day and that was what she said. As soon as she said that, I saw a lightbulb go on in her own head. She later tweeted about our conversation and how she never had said that before but was glad she did because she needed to hear it too. So that advice has always been super special to me. I have that saying engraved on a bracelet that I wear almost every day (lame I know but it’s a nice reminder).
Who is a woman in the theatre community who inspires you and why?
Ally: Another princess. Christy Altomare! She was the first actor I met who actually knew my name and was unbelievably kind.
Amanda: Kara Lindsay! (Another person who I could go on for hours about on the topic of inspiration.) She was the first person in the theatre community who I looked up to and saw myself in- goofiness and all! She is constantly inspiring me to be my best and I’m also extremely grateful to have her in my life.
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